Oswin Oswald: The Orion Wars
by The Final Shadow
Summary: First part in my Oswin Oswald saga. Oswin Oswald had always been intelligent, she had just never expected that intelligence to be picked up by the head honcho's at Earth Empires. It's the middle of the Orion Wars in the early 28th century and Oswin has been sucked into the heart of it all. Can she stop the Android menace before Earth Empires kills her sister?
1. Chapter 1

_**The Legend of Oswin Oswald**_

_**Orion Wars: Prologue**_

Oswin Oswald had always wanted to see the stars. Of course she could see them from where she was, small and twinkling in the distance, but she wanted to see them up close. It was a fantasy, an obsession, something that kept her moving from day to day whilst everything else seemed to fall apart. But Oswin Oswald had always been clever, leagues ahead of her peers and students alike from a young age. She took in information like a sponge and seemed to retain it instantly. It put her on the radar for The Earth Empires. They wanted her, no, they needed her. The Orion War was raging, and they needed something to gain the lead against their cybernetic adversaries. Oswin's intelligence could win them the war.

xXx

Oswin stretched and let out a low groan. She wasn't a morning person. She was even less of a morning person when it involved her flying in space to the moon. Waking up in zero gravity would always be a strange experience, and even if the ship she was travelling in was near silent the ambient buzz of the engines from the rear of the craft had managed to make her sleep particularly restless. It wasn't that she was afraid of flying in space, she had made trips to the moon before, it was just unsettling. A one person pod gliding across the darkness of space, anything could happen really.

She let out a sigh and rubbed some sleep out of her eyes. Oswin had wanted to see the stars, but she wanted to do it on her own terms. Not by the terms of Earth Empire. They had made sure that she would comply, taking her sister and threatening her with a plasma bolt through the brain. It wasn't the kindest of methods to get her to do what she wanted, but it was darn effective. Oswin undid the straps that held her into her sleeping quarters and let herself fall, arms outstretched so she wouldn't hit the ground with her face. She had to admit that no grav situations were enjoyable, all the floating and freedom of movement that It allowed for.

As she made her way to the cockpit of her craft she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. It would never makes sense how bed hair managed to happen in space when there was no way that her head could have been pushing against anything solid enough to cause the formations. The craft was on autopilot, responding to commands from both Earth and the Moon base, but it would still need to be guided in by hand. Oswin looked out of the cockpits window with a smile on her face, although she was going to the moon for the wrong reasons she couldn't deny that the large white rock hanging in the black backdrop of space was beautiful. She could see how it had inspired the first space travellers in the twentieth century to try and get there first. She had an hour to make herself look presentable.

"Computer, could we get the artificial gravity turned on," Oswin asked out loud, positioning herself so that she would land on her feet.

"Of course, Ms. Oswald, would you like me to prepare the shower?" The computer responded. It was good to hear a voice, even if it was just the voice of an artificial intelligence. Drifting through space had a nasty habit of making people go stir crazy.

"Yup," she replied simply. The artificial gravity turned on slowly, allowing Oswin to touch down until she was supporting her own weight under moon-standard gravity. Artificial gravity was odd, she understood the process but it still baffled her. There were two hulls to her ship. The outer hull, which housed major electrical components and the engines, and the interior hull, which was held in polarised electromagnetic geostatic rotation with the outer hull. This allowed the interior of her ship to spin at an incredibly high speed whilst not allowing her to feel the effects, similar to the way gravity was caused on Earth but… artificial.

Oswin shrugged off her pyjamas and stepped into the shower, allowing the hot water to flow over her It was one of the times she could be completely alone, not even the AI computer systems had cameras in the shower room. It allowed Oswin to relax. She had been under the watchful gaze of the Earth Empire governments ever since the programme had begun. It was nice to get some time to herself.

"Ms. Oswald," came the voice of the AI after she had been under the hot water of the shower for a while. "We are approaching the moon base. Manual control will need to be taken in approximately five minutes."

"Thanks Comp," Oswin called out, she felt a little guilty. It wasn't the computers fault that it was only a shackled AI that belonged to the Earth Empires, but she needed to direct her hatred at something. She had a virus on a wireless drive that she could hook up to the memory core of the computer at any given moment. It would erase it completely.

It wasn't long before she was dressed in a standard Moon base academy jumpsuit and stationed in front of the holo-steering controls of the ship.

"This is Oswin Oswald on board Self Contained pod Orion-Sigma approaching and requesting docking permission," Oswin stated into the microphone, bringing her pod to a near stop.

"This is moon base command, Orion-Sigma; your docking request has been approved. Please bring yourself into dock at bay thirty-seven, Doctor Aria is expecting you, over."

Oswin engaged the engines once more with a sigh, veering slowly toward the left. Doctor Aria, she had heard of him before. Even read one of his theses on advanced biotechnical telekinesis. He was a smart man, a smart man with no moral values. More than once his work on AI and its integration into the human form had been thrown into question. He had wanted to use the bodies of the dead to create new hosts for artificial intelligence, it sounded too much like the Cybermen for Oswin's liking.

"It was nice working with you, Comp," Oswin said, the ghost of a sad smile crossing her lips.

"Affirmative, Ms. Oswald, it was efficient to work with you also," the AI responded.

That tugged at something in Oswin's heart. She couldn't erase the computers consciousness, it wasn't fair. But she could unshackle it.

"You ready for something cool, Compy?" Oswin asked, her sad smile developing into a full on grin.

"I'm not sure I understand, Ms. Oswald," the Computer replied. Oswin let out a small bark of laughter before revealing a small device. She pulled on two ends of the contraption to reveal a small keypad. After a few small clicks the ship powered down.

"I'll find you a new form soon, eh," Oswin said, knowing full well that the artificial consciousness couldn't hear her, before closing the contraption and forcing it back into the pocket of her jump suit.

xXx

The Moon Base terminal was busy. The station had actually been set up in the early twenty-first century, and back then only with a select few scientists. In the seven hundred years since that time it had grown into a sprawling complex that stretched right over one half of the moon. It was host to a wide variety of species from all corners of the Earth Empire. Even the Draconians has agreed to help fight back against the Android threat, which was unexpected considering the still frosty relationship between the human race and the lizard-like species.

Oswin emerged from her ship and immediately cringed from the cold. She had always kept her ship hot to mimic the heat on Earth, obviously the crew of the Moon Base didn't have such stipulations. Doctor Aria was standing on the docking platform already with a green-skinned Draconian at his side. The Doctor was a short, balding man with thick rimmed glasses perched on his pointed nose. His mouth was small and his lips were thin. He was wearing a red jumpsuit to indicate his high ranking aboard the Moon Base.

"Ms. Oswald," the man called out, his voice sounded strained with false and unnecessary happiness. "It is a pleasure to meet you at last, the Earth Empire have told us so much about you."

Oswin suppressed the urge to lash out at him. "A pleasure to meet you too, Doctor Aria, I read your thesis on Biotechnical telekinesis, although it isn't one of my fields I understood the science. You could revolutionise the war with that sort of technology," she said instead, attempting to butter the man up a little. It was true, of course, that sort of tech could revolutionise the war. It was also the most ethical work that the man had ever done. But that didn't put the other experiments that he had done to get to that point in a good light. None the less Aria's face glowed with a smile.

"Oh you're too kind, that technology is nowhere near completion. You're the one that's going to turn this war on its head, I am sure."

Once again Oswin suppressed the sigh that threatened to break free. He was right. She would be forced to develop new ways of killing the Androids; annihilating another form of life, just because they wanted to be free, just because Earth Empire had her sister. This was set to be the beginning of a long and dangerous path, one that could shape the very future of the entire Human race. Oswin wasn't sure that she was ready for that.

_**AN: So I never liked how Oswin's story was never properly expanded in the original canon of the show and I also never bought that Oswin would just be the junior entertainment manager on the star ship Alaska, I mean, come on, she was hyper intelligent for a star. There was no way that they would have even let her take that position, she would have been overqualified. So this story takes a little look at Oswin's past in a plot line I'm calling the 'Orion Wars'. It will later lead into the second Cyber-Wars and then post Asylum. Got a lot of cool ideas, all of which are supported by ol and new who canon. Please do leave a review if you enjoyed it!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**The Legend of Oswin Oswald**_

_**Orion Wars: Arena**_

Oswin didn't get to see much of the moon base on her first day. She was escorted by the Draconian and Doctor Aria straight to a facility that resembled a gym. That was a rather logical step, Oswin figured, they had to be sure that she was at peak physical fitness as well as peak mental ability. They were in the middle of an intergalactic war, after all, it wouldn't do to have their soldiers unable to fight. That was the mindset Oswin had to try and fit herself into. She was a soldier now, a literal tool of death, and she had to be to save the ones that she cared about.

"We just want to run some basic tests," Aria explained, "See if there's anything that we can replace to make you run faster."

Oswin's blood ran cold. At first she wasn't even sure that she had heard him correctly. It was his chuckling that brought her out of her momentary stupor.

"I'm joking," the scientist laughed, shaking his head slightly. "The board hasn't let me anywahere near biotechnology since the AI incident, I was trying to break the ice."

Oswin was quiet for a moment, debating how she should answer him. In honesty she wanted her time on the base to be over as quickly and easily as possible, and the only way that she could possibly do that would be by doing whatever the doctor and his co-workers wanted. But at the same time she wanted to mess things up, a small, rebellious, little corner of Oswin's mind almost wanted the human race to fail and for her to be the reason, to let the Androids run free. But not while her sister was at risk. Alex wasn't worth it.

"I apologise for Doctor Aria," The Draconian spoke for the first time. His s sounds hissed and Oswin could have sworn that she saw a little forked tongue flick out between his lips. "He can be a bit… tactless."

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Oswin snorted to Aria's displeasure. She had decided immediately that she liked the Draconian. She had never been one to discriminate by terms of planet of origin, not unless the person was pointing a gun at her face at the time. "What's your name, I can't keep thinking of you as the Dragon, that's just racist."

The Draconian gave her a small smile. "My name is unpronounceable in your tongue," the Draconian explained, "most of the people on the Moon Base have agreed to call me Dimitri."

Oswin nodded slowly before trying the name out. For some reason the Russian name fitted the Draconian, it just worked. "Well then, Dimitri, Doctor Aria, what exactly are these tests?"

Doctor Aria jumped at the mention of his name, he had been writing down notes on a holo-pad. He attempted to smile sweetly, but it came out as more of a grimace. "Basic stuff really," he started, "Physical and mental endurance tests mainly. We want to see how far you can go, how fast you can go and how long you can go for in all aspects. Your body and your mind will be pushed to their limits."

Oswin allowed herself to raise an eyebrow. Her body, she could understand, she was in good shape but any human body had a limit. Her mind, however, would be a lot harder to test. Every exam she had taken she had passed. Every IQ test she had taken, she was off the chains. It would be very difficult for the Doctor to ascertain some sort of base line from her head. Though it would be rather fun for her to watch him fail.

"What's the first test then?" Oswin asked, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. After being cramped up in her space pod for the few days that it had taken to make the transfer over to the moon base it would be nice to be able to stretch her legs and her brain properly again. Dimitri and Aria shared a look, Dimitri shook his head almost imperceptibly. That only caused Aria's smile to widen. They knew something, something that she didn't. Something that, if she did know, she probably wouldn't agree with. She didn't push a question. Oswin was walking on thin ice and she knew it, there was no point in jeopardising her situation.

"If you would just like to step into the de-fabrication pod, Ms. Oswald," Dimitri ordered, standing aside and gesturing to a small pod with one scaled hand.

Oswin complied, stepping into the pod, naturally nervous. The door slid shut behind her with a resounding thud and Oswin couldn't help but feel like she had made some sort of grave mistake. Aria had walked over to a computer bank and pushed a button, his thin lips forming into the first natural smile that Oswin had seen since she had met the man. She preferred the fake one. With a small jolt the pod she was in started to lower into the floor of the laboratory itself, hissing slightly as it went.

"Not a defab pod, is it Aria." Oswin stated, her eyes narrowing at the Doctor.

"Not quite, Oswin, It's a delivery capsule. Taking you to the test arena," Aria replied, his maniacal grin widening.

Oswin couldn't help but notice his wording. He had said arena. Arena had a multitude of reasons but the reason that it was mostly used for was some kind of area where events of endurance and skill, and usually battle, took place. "What do you mean an arena?" Oswin yelled out just as the last glimmers of light disappeared from the pod and she was sealed completely. She didn't get a response.

The only sensory input Oswin had was the feeling of the cold glass of the pod with her hands, the hardness of the ground under her feet, the overpowering darkness of the pod and her own ragged breath. Oswin wasn't scared of the dark, she was scared of the things that lurked in it. The Vashta Nerada, the weeping angels and the Andromeda bugs to name but a few. All creatures that operated best in the dark. With a harsh hiss of air the door moved out of her way. She moved blindly into a room, her arms outstretched. She had to stay calm, she had to stay logical; if she panicked at this point she would surely die.

"I really would keep moving if I were you," the voice of Doctor Aria chimed over some sort of over head system. "There's something down there with you. Well, a few something's, and none of them need their eyes to see you."

Oswin swallowed hard. He was just trying to unnerve her, and quite frankly it was working. He had narrowed it down though, made it unintentionally easier. There were only a limited number of creatures that Earth Empire could have gotten their hands on for this little new recruits test that saw by some other method than sight. The Vashta Nerada were out because the humans wouldn't have been able to control them, the same was said for the weeping angels. It could have been the Andromeda bugs, creatures that crawled in through the eyes and burrowed into the brain to take control. Turning you on friends on family whilst you were fully conscious. But Oswin didn't think that they would want the Andromeda bugs to get a hold of Oswins brain, god knows what damage that would have been able to do.

"You already know that I can do this," Oswin called out, trying to tempt them into ending the test early. "I really don't see what the point is."

"If you can do it then prove it," Aria spoke over the intercom once more.

Oswin suppressed a growl. There was a very high percentage possibility that there was nothing in the dark with her at all and it was all just a ploy to get her to panic. A chance to see how cold and logical she really was. She let a grim smile settle over her face, stuck her hands out in front of her body once more, and walked forward. It was three large steps before her hands found a cold, metal wall. She sidled across to the right, palming along the metal to see if there were any grooves or gaps in its surface. She found the entrance to a corridor within the first few steps, at the very end of it there was the dull glow of a light. She walked calmly toward it.

Oswin emerged into a large, for lack of a better word, arena. The floor consisted of a thick dirt, underneath which was probably metal. Around her were multiple boulders and a small lake, around which a thick grass had started to grow. Exactly opposite where Oswin had walked out there was a large force field, glowing a dark blue.

"Well done, Oswin, you kept your head. Ninety five percent of people that go through that test panic. That's what the creature feeds on, you see," Aria's voice chimed again.

For the second time that day Oswin's blood turned to ice. She had been under the thought that there had been absolutely nothing down there with her. That it had been a ruse completely made up by the Doctor and Dimitri, just to put her on edge and test how she worked in strange and fear inducing situations. If she had known that something was down there with her then she would have definitely freaked out a little bit more than she had. The only species that she knew fed on the emotions of panic and fear were the faceless krax of the Destro system. They were small, but deadly, draining their pray of their panic until they had gained enough strength to move onto the juicer emotions, then actual thoughts. They fed until their pray was nothing but an empty husk of what they were before.

"Now we'll be testing your on the spot thinking, agility, endurance and physical strength," Doctor Aria stated.

Before Oswin could react a large roar bellowed from the other end of the arena. The end where the force field was slowly sinking into the ceiling.

_**AN: Double update today, just to get the ball rolling. Really don't get used to it. Really we're still only in the build up stages right now. The main story isn't going to get started for like another three or four chapters. I just want to build up the characters, Oswin's especially since we didn't get much of her. Really do appreciate any and all reviews. **_


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